Fish Skull Articulated Shanks

These Fish Skull Articulated Shanks were not, we guess, specifically designed for those of us who are principally obsessed with tying Intruder style flies for salmon and steelhead. They seem to be aimed at the rest of the fly tying materials and supplies world that includes a lot of fly tyers who are focused on bass, pike, Musky, and alligators.

Fact is, many popular salmon and steelhead flies have also been tied in an articulated style - this meaning that the fly has at least two parts or sections, and that the individual sectons are free to wiggle and giggle independently in the current, thereby providing extra fish attracting inducement to whatever giant salmon, steelhead or trout might be considering consumption of said articulated fly.

Wow. Now, for the 2012 fly tying season and distributed by our friends at Hareline Dubbin, the Caddis Fly Shop is offering these nifty Fish Skull Articulated Shanks for both the articulation of flies and as well for a wire base upon which one may secure a stinger hook (or trailer). This style of fly is often referred to as an Intruder style and we formerly looked to Wadington Shanks, a long shank hook (that we would cut off after tying the fly), or some sort of bulk wire that we would laboriously shape into the desired proportions.

Well, Wadington Shanks have been at times practically unavailable and then available, and are sometimes a little heavier than we would like for our Intruders, so these Fish Skull Articulated Shank are really just what we were looking for to fill the gap and make the process of tying both articulated and Intruder flies far easier.

Fish Skull Articulated Shank are available currently in 20mm, 35mm, and 55mm sizes. Possibly, Fish Skull might provide other options in the future, but for now, these lengths pretty well cover our needs. We have shot several videos for the Caddis Fly Blog showing how to secure fire-line or Maxima mono to string a stinger hook and tie a Hickman's Flash Taco fly. The process of tying on the trailer hook leader is a little tricky in that we find that it is best to lay the leader material down on each side of the rear loop of the Fish Skull Articulated Shank instead of laying it right on top as we would have done if tying on a straight wire.

The process of producing stinger trailers may make more sense if you watch the Caddis Fly Video on this subject, because there ain't nuthin like seeing it done.

These Fish Skull Articulated Shanks secure very nicely in every fly tying vise we have tried so far (Dyna King, Nor Vise, Renzetti, Regal, Thompson, Marc Petitjean, and HMH). The open loop at the rear of the shank is perpendicular to the round front eye. This arrangement means that we can easily secure the shank and have the fly in its proper topside/bottom-side proportion.

A few technical details about the Fish Skull Articulated Shank to note. The heft of the wire on the Fish Skull Articulated Shank is about the same as on Hckman's series of Fish and Flash Taco flies. This means that flies tied with Fish Skull Articulated Shanks will be easy to cast and will not hang up in softer flows. If one wishes to add weight, it is best done with dumbell eyes or adding lead or lead-free wire, because these shanks are not amenable to use of cones or beads. The key exception, naturally, is that these Fish Skull Articulated Shanks readily accept the Fish Skull standard and sculpin heads, and these look very nice indeed.

We have also tied articulated flies using rabbit and marabou for front and rear portions of the fly, and these look pretty nice. More videos of these flies will follow as soon as we can manage.

Fish Skull Articulated Shanks eliminate the search for the perfect shank for tying intruders, articulated flies and string leaches. These articulated shanks allow the fly tyer to simply slide a hook on without using a string or junction of any sort. Tie your fly on the shank and permanently fix the articulated hook or slide it on and off. How hard have Wadington Shanks been to get lately? Forget it the Fish Skull Articulated Shank makes them obsolete. How about cutting a shank off your favorite saltwater hook and having it spring across the room. Again no longer needed with these awesome shanks.

At time of this report - 20 Fish Skull Articulated Shanks PER PACK, subject to revision, naturally.